CHAPTER VIII
THE MAN-EATERS
Five days later they came to a great lake which seemed to stretch awaythrough the depths of the forest interminably, with the trail followingits winding shores.
At the first sight of the water shining in the sunlight, Pinto showedsigns of great uneasiness.
"This must be the Lake of the Man-eaters," he said to Professor Ditson."I have heard the wise men of the tribe speak of it many times. All theanimals around it are eaters of men. See, perhaps there be some of theirtracks now!" and he pointed to where there showed in the soft sand whatlooked like the paw-prints of a huge cat.
"Pinto," said the professor, severely, "I'm ashamed of you! The sightof those Mayas has made your mind run on man-eaters. Don't you know apuma's track when you see them, and don't you know that a puma neverattacks a man?"
"The perfesser's right for once," chimed in Jud. "That's the track ofwhat we call a mountain-lion or panther up north, an' they don't neverhurt nobody."
Pinto was still unconvinced. "Perhaps they do here," he insisted.
"You come along with me," returned Professor Ditson. "We'll explore thislake a bit before dark." And, followed by all of the party except Willand Jud, whose turn it was to make camp, he disappeared around a bend inthe shore.
The two who were left behind soon found a high, sandy bank where theycleared a space and started a small fire. Just in front of them was atiny bay, connected with the lake by a narrow channel edged by lines ofwaving ferns, while a little beach of white sand curved away to thewater in front of the camp-site.
"Here is where Judson Adams, Esquire, takes a bath," suddenly announcedthe old trapper, producing a couple of cakes of tree-soap, which he hadpicked along the trail, and slipping out of his clothes like an eel.
"Pinto said never to go into strange water," warned Will.
"Pooh," said Jud. "He was talkin' about rivers where them murderin'catfish an' anacondas hide. This pool ain't ten feet across an' there'snothin' in it except a few stray minnies"; and he pointed out to Will alittle school of short, deep-bodied fish which looked something like thesunfish which the boys used to catch along the edges of Cream Hill Pond.Otherwise no living creature showed in the clear water, nor could beconcealed along the bright, pebbly bottom.
"Better not," warned Will again. "This ain't your country, Jud. Pintoseemed to know what he was talking about. Let's wait until the professorgets back."
"Pinto will never win any Carnegie medals, an' I guess I can take abath without gettin' permission from the perfesser," returned Jud,obstinately. "However," he went on, "just to show you that the old mannever takes any chances, I'll poke a stick around in this pool to driveout the devil-fish that may be hidin' here."
Nothing happened as the old man prodded the water with a long branch cutfrom a near-by tree, except that the motion of the stick seemed toattract more and more of the chubby fish which he had first seen fromthe outer channel into the pool.
"Gee," remarked Jud, "but those fish are tame! I'll bet if I had a hookan' line I could flick out a dozen. Better come in with me, Bill," hewent on. "I promised your family that I'd see that you boys took plentyof baths an' kept your hair brushed all through this trip."
"I'll wait till the boss comes back," said Will, laughingly.
That was enough for Jud.
"I'm my own boss!" he remarked indignantly, and waded in with a cake oftree-grown soap clenched tightly in one hand.
His first step took him well above his knees. There was a swirl and aflash from the center of the pool, and in an instant the whole surfacewas alive with a furious rush of the short, deep-bodied fish toward Jud.As they approached, the old man noticed uneasily their staring,malignant eyes, and that they had projecting, gaping lower jaws, thicklyset with razor-edged, triangular teeth.
Suddenly the whole school were upon him, crowding into the shallow waterwhere he stood and snapping at his bare legs like mad dogs. Before hecould stir, two of them had bitten pieces of flesh out of the calves ofboth of his legs. As the blood from their bites touched the surface ofthe pool, the fish seemed to go entirely mad, snapping their fierce jawsfrantically and even springing clear of the water, like trout leaping ata fly.
If they had not been so numerous that they jostled each other, or ifJud had not been quicker than most men twenty years younger, he wouldhave been terribly mutilated. As it was, when he finally reached thesafety of the bank, the water which he had just left boiled and bubbledlike a caldron, and two of the fish followed him so closely that theylanded, flapping, snapping, and squealing, far up on the white sand.
When Will approached them, the stranded fish tried to spring at him,clicking their jaws with impotent, savage fury. A moment later, as hetried to hold one of them down with a stick, it drove its keenwedge-shaped teeth clear through the hard wood. When the rest of theparty came back, they found Jud and Will staring as if fascinated at thedesperate, raging dwellers of the pool.
"I told you strange water not safe," said Pinto, as Professor Ditsonskilfully bandaged Jud's legs with a dressing of sphagnum moss and thethick red sap of the dragon's-blood tree. "Look," and he showed Willthat a joint of one of his fingers was missing. "Cannibal-fish moredangerous than anaconda or piraiba. They kill tiger and eat up alligatorif it get wounded. Once," he went on, "white man ride a mule acrossriver where these fish live. They bit mule and he threw man off into theriver. When I got there an hour later only skeleton left of mule. Man'sclothes lie at bottom of river, but only bones inside. You wait alittle. I pay them well." And he disappeared into the woods.
Professor Ditson corroborated the Indian.
"They are undoubtedly the fiercest and most dangerous fish that swim,"he said. "If the water is disturbed, it arouses them, and the taste orsmell of blood seems to drive them mad."
By the time Jud was patched up, Pinto came back trailing behind him along length of liana, from either end of which oozed a white liquid.This vine he pounded between two stones and threw into the pool. Aminute later the water was milky from the flowing juice, and before longwas filled with floating, motionless piranhas stupefied by the poisonoussap. Pinto fished out several with a long stick, and breaking theirnecks, wrapped them in balls of blue clay which he found along theshore, and, first making air-holes, set them to bake in the hot coals ofthe fire. When at last a smell of roast fish went up from the midst ofthe fire, Pinto pulled each ball out and broke the hard surface withlight taps of a stick. The skin and scales came off with the clay.Opening the fish carefully, he cleaned it, leaving nothing but thesavory white baked meat, which tasted and looked almost exactly likeblack bass. Jud avenged himself by eating seven.
Toward the end of the afternoon, Professor Amandus Ditson left the restof the party reclining in that state of comfort and satisfaction whichcomes after a good meal. Each day the professor devoted all of his sparetime toward realizing the greatest ambition of his life, to wit, theacquirement of one full-grown, able-bodied bushmaster. To-day armed withnothing more dangerous than a long crotched stick, he strolled along thetrail, leaving it occasionally to search every mound or hillock whichshowed above the flat level of the jungle, since in such places thisking of the pit-vipers is most apt to be found. Two hundred yards awayfrom the camp, the trail took a turn, following the curved shore of thegreat lake, and in a few minutes the scientist was entirely out of sightor sound of the rest of the party. At last, finding nothing inland heturned his steps toward the lake itself. On some bare spaces showingbetween the trail and the edge of the water, he saw more of thepuma-tracks like those which Pinto had pointed out earlier in the day.Remembering the Indian's fear the scientist smiled as he examined thefresh prints of big pads and long claws.
"Harmless as tomcats," he muttered to himself.
A moment later something happened which upset both the professor andhis theories. As he straightened up, a hundred pounds of puma landedupon him. The legend of the lake, as far as pumas were concerned, wasevidently correct. Harmless to man in othe
r places, here, it seemed, thegreat cat stalked men as if they were deer. This one intended to sinkthe curved claws of her forepaws in the professor's shoulders, and, withher teeth at his throat, to rake his body with the terrible downward,slashing strokes of the catamount clan. Fortunately for himself, he hadhalf-turned at the sound which her sudden spring made among the bushes.Instead of catching his throat, the panther's fanged jaws closed on theupper part of his left arm, while her forepaws gripped his shoulders,which were protected by a khaki coat and flannel shirt. Professor Ditsonpromptly caught the animal's throat with his sinewy right hand and heldthe great beast off at arm's length, thus keeping his body beyond therange of the deadly sickle-like hind claws. For a moment the puma'sluminous gooseberry green eyes stared into his, and he could see thesoft white of her under parts and the long, tawny tail which is thehall-mark of her family. As he sank his steel-strong fingers deeper intothe great brute's throat, Professor Ditson abandoned all hope of life,for no unarmed man can hope to cope successfully with any of the greatcarnivora.
"A dozen zoologists have lied in print!" he murmured to himself,indignantly.
Even as he spoke, he tried to wrench his left arm free. He immediatelyfound, however, that it was impossible to pull it straight out frombetween the keen teeth. Sinking his fingers deeper into the puma'sthroat, he squeezed it suddenly with all of his strength. Involuntarily,as the wind was shut off from her lungs, the gripping jaws relaxedenough to allow the scientist to pull his arm through them for a fewinches sidewise. Again the puma caught the moving arm, a few incheslower down. Again, as the man gripped her throat afresh, she relaxed herhold, and he gained an inch or so before the sharp teeth clamped tightagain. Inch by inch, the professor worked the full length of his armthrough the fierce jaws which, in spite of the khaki sleeve and thickshirt beneath, pierced and crushed terribly the tense muscles of hisarm.
Throughout the struggle the tawny beast kept up a continual grunting,choking snarl, while the man fought in utter silence. At last the wholelength of the professor's left arm had been dragged through, until onlyhis hand itself was in the mouth of the puma. Shoving it down her hotgullet, he gripped the base of her tongue so chokingly that thestruggling panther was unable to close her jaws, and, for the first timeduring the fight, the professor was free from the pain of her piercingteeth.
In a desperate struggle to release the grip which was shutting off herbreath, the puma lurched over and fell full length on her back in theloose sand, dragging the man down with her, and the professor foundhimself with his left hand deep in her gullet, his right hand stillclutching the beast's throat desperately, while his knees, with theweight of his body back of them, pressed full against her ribs on eachside. As they struck the ground he sank his elbows into the armpits ofthe puma beneath him, spreading her front legs and pinning them down, sothat her frantic claws could reach inward only enough to rip his coat,without wounding the flesh beneath. Once on the ground, the pantherstruggled fiercely, pitching and bucking in an effort to release herselffrom the man's weight so that she could be in a position to make use ofthe curved scimitars with which all four of her paws were armed. Theloose sand shifted and gave her no purchase.
As they fought, Professor Ditson felt his strength leaving him with theblood that flowed from his gashed and mangled arm. Raising himself alittle, he surged down with both knees and felt a rib snap under hisweight and the struggling body relax a trifle. For the first time hedared hope to do what no man had done since the cavemen contended withtheir foes among the beast-folk, and to his surprise noted that he wasbeginning to take a certain grim pleasure in the combat. The fury of thefight had pierced through the veneer of education and culture, andProfessor Amandus Ditson, the holder of degrees from half a dozenlearned universities, battled for his life that day with a beast of theforest with all the desperation and fierce joy which any of hisprehistoric forebears might have felt a hundred thousand years ago.
It had become a question as to which would give up first--the man orthe beast. Fighting off the waves of blackness which seemed to surge upand up until they threatened to close over his head, he foughtdesperately with clutching hands and driving knees, under which the thinribs of the puma snapped like dry branches, until at last, with a long,convulsive shudder, the great cat stopped breathing. Even as he felt thetense body relax and become motionless under his grip, the blacknessclosed over his head.
There the rest of the party, alarmed by his long absence, found him anhour later. His gaunt body was stretched out on the dead panther and hisright hand was sunk in the long fur, while his left hand and arm wereburied to the elbow in the fierce gaping mouth and his bowed knees stillpinned the great cat down. Around the dead beast and the unconscious mansat four black vultures. Thrusting forward from time to time theirnaked, red, hooded heads, they seemed about to begin their feast whenthe rescuing party arrived. With his face hidden in the panther's tawnyfur, Professor Ditson seemed as dead as the beast that lay beneath him.It was not until Hen had pried his fingers away from the puma's throatand carefully drawn his gashed hand from the beast's gullet that hiseyes flickered open and his gaunt chest strained with a long, laboredbreath.
"I was wrong," were his first words. "The _Felis concolor_ doesoccasionally attack man. I'll make a note of it," he went on weakly, "inthe next edition of my zoology."
"I was wrong, too," burst out Jud, pressing close up to the exhaustedscientist and clasping his uninjured hand in both of his. "I thought youwere nothin' but a perfesser, but I want to say right here an' now thatyou're a _man_."
The danger, however, was not yet over. The scratches and bites of apanther or a jaguar, like those of a lion or tiger, almost invariablycause death from blood-poisoning if not immediately treated. UnderProfessor Ditson's half-whispered directions, they stripped off hisclothes, washed away the blood and dirt with clear water, and then,using the little surgical kit which he always wore at his belt, injecteda solution of iodine into every scratch and tooth-mark.
"It is necessary," said the scientist, gritting his teeth as thestinging liquid smarted and burned like fire, "but I do not believe thatlife itself is worth so much suffering."
The rest of the party, however, did not agree with this perhaps hastyopinion, and persisted in their treatment until every puncture wasproperly sterilized. Then, bandaged with great handfuls of cool sphagnummoss and attended by the faithful Hen Pine, the professor slept theclock around. While he was asleep, Will and Pinto slipped away togetherto see if they could not bring back a plump curassow from which to makebroth for him when he finally woke up; while Jud and Joe, with similargood intentions, scoured the jungle for the best-flavored fruits theymight find.
Will and his companion found the birds scarce although they slippedthrough the jungle like shadows. As they penetrated deeper among thetrees they were careful to walk so that their shadows fell directlybehind them, which meant that they were walking in a straight line,along which they could return by observing the same precaution. As theyreached a tiny grove of wild oranges, Will's quick eye caught sight ofsomething which gleamed white against the dark trunks, and the two wentover to investigate. There they saw a grisly sight. Coiled in a perfectcircle were the bones of an anaconda some fifteen feet in length. Everyvertebra and rib, and even the small bones of the head and theformidable, recurved teeth, were perfect, while in all the greatskeleton there was not a fragment of flesh nor a scale of the skinremaining. Strangest of all, inclosed by the ribs of the snake was thecrushed skeleton of a large monkey, which likewise had been cleaned andpolished beyond the skill of any human anatomist or taxidermist. Someterrible foe had attacked the great snake while lying helpless andtorpid after its heavy meal and had literally devoured it alive. Theface of the Indian was very grave as he looked at the gleaming bonesbefore him, and he stared carefully through the adjoining thicketsbefore speaking.
"Puma bad man-eater," he said at last; "cannibal-fish worse; butanicton most dangerous of all. He eat same as fire eats. He kill jaguar,sucurucu,
bushmaster, alligator, Indian, white man. He afraid ofnothing."
"What is the anicton?" inquired Will, frightened in spite of himself.
Even as he spoke, from far beyond in the jungle came a strange, rustlingwhisper which seemed to creep along the ground and pass on and onthrough the woods like the hiss of spreading flames.
"Come," said the Indian, briefly, "I show you." And he led Will fartherout into the jungle through which the menacing whisper seemed to hurryto meet them.
Soon small flocks of plain-colored birds could be seen flying low, withexcited twitterings, evidently following the course of some unseenobjects on the ground. Then there came a rustling through theunderbrush, and, in headlong flight, an army of little animals,reptiles, and insects dashed through the jungle. Long brown wood-ratsscuttled past, tiny jumping-mice leaped through the air, guidingthemselves with their long tails, while here and there centipedes, smallsnakes, and a multitude of other living creatures sped through the brushas if fleeing before a forest fire.
Suddenly, through a corner of the jungle thrust the van of a vast armyof black ants. Through the woods they moved in lines and regiments anddivisions, while little companies deployed here and there on each sideof the main guard. Like a stream of dark lava, the army flowed swiftlyover the ground. As with human armies, this one was made up of differentkinds of soldiers, all of whom had different duties to perform. Mostnumerous of all were the eyeless workers, about half an inch in length,armed with short, but keen, cutting mandibles. These acted as carriersand laborers and reserves, and, although blind, were formidable byreason of their numbers. Larger than the workers, measuring a full inchin length, were the soldiers, with enormous square heads and mandiblespointed and curved like pairs of ice-tongs. These soldiers would drivein each mandible alternately until they met in the body of their victim,and when they met they held. Even if the body of the ants was torn away,the curved clinging jaws still clinched and bit. With the soldiers camecompanies of butchers, whose jaws had serrated teeth which sheared andcut through flesh and muscle like steel saws. Besides these, there werelaborers and reserve soldiers by the million.
Pinto told Will that a large ant-army would take twenty-four hours topass a given point even when traveling at full speed. As they watchedthis army, Will saw an exhibition of what it could do. A large agouti infleeing before them had in some way caught its leg in a tangle of vinesand, squealing in terror, tried in vain to escape. Before it couldrelease itself, the rush of the army was upon it, and it disappearedunder a black wave of biting, stinging ants, which methodically cut upand carried off every fragment of the animal's flesh, and passed on,leaving behind only a picked skeleton.
As Will watched this hurrying, resistless multitude, although wellbeyond the path of its advance, he felt a kind of terror, and wasrelieved when the Mundurucu started back for camp.
"Nothing that lives," said Pinto, as they turned toward the trail, "canstand against the black army."
The next day Jud and Joe joined in the hunt, leaving Hen to nurse theprofessor. Following a deer trail back from the shore, they came to apatch of swampy woods a mile from the lake. There Will discovered amound some five feet high made of rushes, rotting moss, leaves, andmold.
"Is that a nest of ants?" he called to the Indian, pointing out to himthe symmetrical hillock.
Pinto's face lighted up.
"No," he said, "that a nest of eggs. We dig it out, have good supperto-night."
"It must be some bird," exclaimed Jud, hurrying up, "to make a nest likethat. Probably one of them South American ostriches--hey, Pinto?"
"You'll see," was all that the Indian would say as he began to dig intothe soft, spongy mass. The rest of the party followed his example. Bythe time they had reached the center of the mound, digging with sticksand bare hands, the matted, rotting vegetation felt warm to the touch,and this heat increased as they approached the base of the nest. Down atthe very bottom of the mound, arranged in a circle on a bed of moss,they found no fewer than twenty-four white eggs as large as those of aduck, but round and covered with a tough, parchment-like shell.
Pinto hurriedly pouched them all in a netted game-bag which he had madefor himself out of palm-fiber.
"Want to see bird that laid those eggs?" he asked Jud.
"I sure would," returned the old trapper. "Any fowl that builds afive-foot incubator like that must be worth seein'."
"Rub two eggs together and she come," directed Pinto, holding out hisbag to Jud.
Following the Indian's suggestion, Jud unsuspectingly rubbed two of theeggs against each other. They made a curious, penetrating, gratingnoise, like the squeal of chalk on a blackboard.
Hardly had the sound died away, when from out of a near-by wet thicketthere came a roaring bellow that shook the very ground they stood on,and suddenly the air was filled with the sweet sickly scent of musk. Judturned as if stung by a fire-ant, to see a pair of green eyes glaring athim above the jaws of a great alligator which had been lurking in thedarkness of the jungle. As it lay there like an enormous lizard, thedark gray of its armored hide hardly showed against the shadows. On eachside of the fore part of the upper jaw, two cone-shaped tusks showedwhite as polished ivory, fitting into sockets in the lower jaw. Even asJud looked, the upper jaw of the vast saurian was raised straight up,showing the blood-red lining of the mouth gaping open fully three feet.Then, with a roar like distant thunder, the great reptile raised itsbody, as big as that of a horse, upon its short, squat legs, and rushedthrough the brush at Jud with a squattering gait, which, however,carried it over the ground at a tremendous rate of speed for a creatureeighteen feet long.
It was Jud's first experience with an alligator, and with a yell he randown the slope like a race-horse. Unfortunately for him, on a straightline downhill an alligator can run faster than a man, and this one beganto overtake him rapidly. As he glanced back, the grinning jaws seemedright at his shoulder.
"Dodge him! Dodge him!" yelled Pinto.
At first, Jud paid no attention, but ran straight as a deer willsometimes run between the rails to its death before a locomotive whenone bound to the side would save it. At last, as Will and Joe also beganto shout the same words over and over again, the idea penetrated Jud'sbewildered brain and he sprang to one side and doubled on his trail. Hispursuer, however, specialized in doubling itself. Unable to turn rapidlyon account of its great length, and seeing its prey escaping, thealligator curved its body and the long serrated tail swung over theground like a scythe. The extreme end of it caught Jud just above theankles and swept him off his feet, standing him on his head in athorn-bush from which he was rescued by Pinto and Will, who had followedclose behind. The alligator made no further attempt at pursuit, butquickly disappeared in the depths of a marshy thicket.
"Whew!" said Jud, exhausted, sitting down on a fallen log and moppinghis steaming face. "That was certainly a funny joke, Mr. Pinto. Aboutone more of those an' you won't go any further on this trip. You'll stayright here--underground."
The Mundurucu was very apologetic, explaining that he had not intendedto do anything worse than startle the old man, while Will and Joeinterceded for him.
"He only wanted to see you run," said the latter, slyly. "Nobody can runlike Jud when he's scared."
"No, boy," objected the old trapper, "I wasn't exactly scared. Startledis the right word. It would startle anybody to have a monstrophalusalligator rush out of nowhere an' try to swallow him."
"Certainly it would," agreed Will, gravely. "Anybody could see that youweren't scared, you looked so noble when you ran."
Peace thus being restored, the whole party returned to camp, where thatnight Professor Ditson, who was feeling better, gave a long discourse onthe difference between crocodiles, alligators, and caymans.
"If that had been a crocodile," he explained "you wouldn't be here now.There's one species found in South America, and it's far faster than anyalligator. Look out for it."
"I most certainly will," murmured Jud.
That
night at supper, Pinto proceeded to roast in the hot coals thewhole clutch of alligator eggs except the two which Jud had dropped inhis excitement. For the first time in a long life, the old trapperrefused the food set before him.
"I've et monkeys an' dragons an' cannibal-fish without a murmur," hesaid, "but I draw the line at alligator's eggs. They may taste allright, but when I think of their dear old mother an' how she took to me,I'm just sentimental enough to pass 'em up."